Piecing together the story of an intricate television classic
It’s been 10 years since The Wire went off the air at HBO, taking with it the most meticulously structured and realistic storytelling in the history of TV drama.
The US series was almost cancelled too many times to count, but it persevered through five seasons. It was never a hit. But as The Wire kept unwinding, it created a universe more akin to an epic Russian novel than a onehour crime show.
For us true believers, it’s still the best show to ever grace the tube.
Jonathan Abrams is a true believer. Like many Wire heads he came to the show late, via DVD. When he started, he couldn’t stop. Unlike most fans, however, Abrams is also a master craftsman of oral histories. Primarily a sportswriter, Abrams once turned the infamous Malice at the Palace, an NBA game that turned into a brawl involving players and fans, into a Rashomon-like tapestry of recollections.
With his new book, All the Pieces Matter, Abrams has written the ultimate Wire oral history. He talked to just about everybody, from series architect David Simon and major cast members to crew members and bit players. As the title says, all the pieces matter. (The title comes from a line delivered on the show by the cerebral Baltimore police detective Lester Freamon).
‘‘I think oral histories work best when a good amount of time has passed, so people can really reflect on what that moment meant to them and what happened to them in that moment,’’ he says. ‘‘I also think oral histories work best when you have multiple people viewing the same event. There’s a capacity for us to think that people see the same event the same way, which isn’t the case.’’
If you’ve never seen The Wire ,I envy you. You have a world of riches ahead. Simon, who cut his teeth as a city reporter for the Baltimore Sun, used his institutional knowledge and narrative gifts to create an intricate drama of systemic failure.
Each season takes on a different Baltimore entity (in order, from seasons one through five: the drug trade, labor unions, city hall, public schools and the newspaper). But there’s nothing dry about The Wire. It’s no civics lesson. Simon, his partner Ed Burns (a caustic former police detective), and a Murderers’ Row of writers (including Richard Price, George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane), gave us stories and characters built to last.
Meanwhile, some characters that seemed built to last met untimely ends. Abrams is particularly insightful in his conversations with actors whose characters bit the dust. (If you’ve never seen the show, skip to the next paragraph). The two biggest stars to emerge from The Wire, Idris Elba (who played drug kingpin Stringer Bell) and Michael B. Jordan (who played the conscience-stricken slinger Wallace), were both killed off. So was Lawrence Gilliard Jr, whose D’Angelo Barksdale was a focal point of the first season.
Each acting casualty knew he was working on a special kind of show, which only increased the trauma of being let go. The audience felt it, too. Simon is unapologetic. As they say on the show, it’s all in the game.
‘‘You don’t write for anybody but the story, for yourself and for your idea of what the story is,’’ Simon tells Abrams. ‘‘The moment you start thinking about the audience, and the audience’s expectation, you’re lost.’’
Hearing from so many Wire players in All the Pieces Matter reminds us of the show’s perpetual dance with reality. Burns taught middle school for a while; his experiences became the basis for Season 4. A former Baltimore mayor, Kurt Schmoke, played a city health commissioner on The Wire.
All the Pieces Matter makes for compulsive reading, whether you’re just getting up on The Wire, or you know every episode by heart. The Wire is like a book you pick up and reread every few years. Now that book has the perfect companion. – TNS